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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27913579">Wanted Dead or Alive</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toku_fangirl_2015/pseuds/Toku_fangirl_2015'>Toku_fangirl_2015</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Backstory, Gen, Pre-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 19:14:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,369</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27913579</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toku_fangirl_2015/pseuds/Toku_fangirl_2015</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Joe has been a pirate for only a week when he first sees the Wanted poster bearing his face.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Joe Gibken/Captain Marvelous</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Yuletide 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Wanted Dead or Alive</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lionwingz/gifts">Lionwingz</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Happy Yuletide 2020! I went with some Gokaiger shenanigans.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I come here whenever I can,” Marvelous explains to his new first mate as they dock the Galleon at a backwater space port. “It’s the best place to restock our supplies.” Joe has been on board for a week now, and appears to be adjusting quite well to pirate life. It’s nice to have someone else on board, someone to talk to besides the robotic bird, someone who doesn’t remind him of…well. No point in following that train of thought.</p><p>They are walking through town when Joe sees something that makes him go absolutely still. Marvelous follows his gaze and immediately sees what has caught Joe’s eye.</p><p>“Well, looks like you’re officially a pirate now,” he says with a smirk. “I think this calls for a drink.”</p><p>Joe runs across the alley to get a closer look at the Wanted poster bearing his face. At the top, in bold letters, it says: <em>Wanted—Dead or Alive.</em> Beneath the headline is a photo of Joe, still in his Zangyack military uniform. Beneath the photo is more text. <em>Name: Joe Gibken. Charges: Desertion and piracy. Reward: 1.5 Million Zagins.</em></p><p>Marvelous whistles. “It took me years to get that kind of bounty on <em>my</em> head,” he remarks. He frowns at the poster next to Joe’s, which bears his own face and a promised reward of 2 million Zagins. “They never get my good side for these,” he grumbles.</p><p>“We should go,” Joe says quietly. “It’s not safe here, not if anyone recognizes us.”</p><p>Marvelous smirks. “Believe me, nobody here is a friend of the Zangyack Empire.”</p><p>“Not even for <em>that</em> kind of money?” Joe asks skeptically.</p><p>“This is a town of smugglers and thieves,” Marvelous explains. “Anyone here who wants to collect the reward probably has a few things Zangyack would want to talk to <em>them</em> about first.” He gives Joe a friendly punch in the shoulder. “Come on, let me buy you that drink.” He leads Joe out of the alley and around the corner to his favorite bar.</p><p>Neither of them sees the figure in the shadows who slips quietly away.</p><p>The woman who runs the bar smiles at Marvelous warmly before going to get their drinks. They sit at a small table in the back corner, at Joe’s insistence. “I’ve seen those posters before, with other people on them,” Joe says. “And…I know what happens to them if Zangyack gets their hands on them. I just never thought I’d see one with my own face.”</p><p>“You’re not having second thoughts, are you?” Marvelous asks, alarmed.</p><p>Joe shakes his head once, emphatically. “Definitely not. It just…came as a shock.”</p><p>They are on their third round of drinks when Joe freezes with his glass halfway to his mouth. Marvelous glances over to the bar, where someone in a Zangyack uniform is leaning uncomfortably close to the bar’s owner. “…penalty for harboring known fugitives is severe,” he says to her. “Now, why don’t you just tell us where they are?”</p><p>She keeps her eyes focused down, scrubbing at a water stain on the bar. “I just serve the drinks here,” she says nonchalantly. “Can’t say as I’ve seen anyone you’d be looking for.”</p><p>“Back exit’s this way,” Marvelous murmurs to Joe, rising carefully from his chair. “Do you have your Mobirates on you?” Joe dips his chin in a wordless nod. “You remember that chest with the keys I showed you?” Another nod. “You can use <em>any</em> of them,” Marvelous says as they slip through the back door. “I don’t think Zangyack’s figured that out yet, and they certainly don’t know that <em>you</em> can transform like I do.”</p><p>They transform in the alley just as the Goumin show up, nearly a dozen of them. They face them back-to-back, Joe slashing furiously with his sword. Joe manages to take down three, and Marvelous two more, in the span of a few minutes. It is a challenge, the two of them against so many, but as Joe slashes a fourth one in half, Marvelous thinks that they might just be able to defeat them all.</p><p>Then the reinforcements arrive.</p><p>Marvelous and Joe are pulled apart.</p><p>It takes four of them to subdue Joe, two holding each arm, as they begin to lead him away. “Joe!” Marvelous calls desperately, reaching for him even as more Goumin grab his own arms. <em>I should’ve listened to him,</em> he thinks miserably. The Goumin march Marvelous in the opposite direction. He slumps in their hold.</p><p>They are met a block later by a figure in blue and white armor, with a black visor across his eyes. The white armor covering his chest is decorated with lines and brightly-colored shapes in a design that looks like the inside of a computer. It takes Marvelous a second to place why the man looks so familiar, but he smirks inside his helmet when he does. “I’ll take the prisoner,” the man says.</p><p>Goumin aren’t exactly the brightest bulbs, so three of the four begin to loosen their hold on Marvelous. The fourth one, however, tilts his head skeptically. “And you are?”</p><p>The man in blue squares his shoulders and leans over the Goumin. “I am General Bioman,” he says with quiet menace. “Member of His Majesty’s Royal guard, and <em>personally</em> tasked with bringing him this prisoner, under Imperial Order 516.” He looks the group of Goumin over. “You <em>do</em> know the penalty for disobeying Order 516, don’t you?”</p><p>The skeptical Goumin releases Marvelous and backs away, hands up in a gesture of surrender. “He’s all yours, sir,” he says. “You, uh, you have a good evening, General Bioman, sir.”</p><p>“Your fellow guards <em>somehow</em> managed to let the traitor escape,” General Bioman adds. “He went that way.” He points in the opposite direction of their ship.</p><p>“Sir!” one of the Goumin says with a salute. “We will re-capture the prisoner and bring him to you, sir!”</p><p>“See that you do,” General Bioman says. They all stare at each other for a long moment. “Well? What are you waiting for?” The Goumin scramble out of the alley.</p><p>Marvelous smirks as he ends his transformation. “So, <em>General Bioman</em>, it seems that you’ve captured a dangerous space pirate. What are you going to do with me?”</p><p>“I expect you to come quietly,” he says, “unless you want me to restrain you.”</p><p>“You should know by now, I <em>never</em> come quietly.” Joe tugs on his arm as a warning, and Marvelous chuckles. “But just this once, I’ll cooperate.”</p><p>**</p><p>Back on the Galleon, Marvelous finds Joe up in the crow’s nest. “I can’t believe that worked,” Joe says.</p><p>“You were very believable,” Marvelous assures him. “And…that armor looked good on you.”</p><p>Joe turns his head towards him. “Did it now?” Marvelous thinks he sees a hint of a smile.</p><p>“By the way,” Marvelous asks, “what <em>is</em> the penalty for disobeying Imperial Order 516?”</p><p>“Any Goumin found to be in subordination will be disassembled and melted down into ship’s hulls,” Joe explains.</p><p>Marvelous lets out a low whistle. “<em>That’s</em> how they treat the Goumin? I can see why our friends back there didn’t want to risk it.”</p><p>“What they do to insubordinate <em>soldiers</em> is even worse,” Joe says quietly. His eyes are dark and haunted.</p><p>“Forget about it,” Marvelous tells him. “You’ve left that part of your life behind.”</p><p>Joe snorts. “It’s that simple, huh?”</p><p>Marvelous thinks about his own past, the words that keep him awake at night, the faces he wishes he could leave behind. “Of course not. But it’s what we need to do.”</p><p>Joe raises his brows at the “we” in his statement. He inches closer in silent acknowledgement and looks up at the star-filled sky. “We never did get those supplies,” he comments. “Do we go back tomorrow, or find another port?”</p><p>“I told you, this is the best place for supplies,” Marvelous says. “We’ll go first thing in the morning. And I’m taking that poster as a souvenir.”</p><p>Another ghost of a smile. “What for?”</p><p>“It’s a good way to track your career as a pirate,” he says. “I’ve kept all of mine.”</p><p>Joe shakes his head. “You’re impossible.”</p><p>Marvelous grins. “And that’s why I’m going to succeed.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading! This is my first year participating in the Yuletide challenge, so I hope this is at least close to what you had in mind.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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